Seminar will take the fear out of saving a life

Dr. Lou Valente, Health Matters reporter for Sun City TV News, was recently honored by the American Red Cross for saving four lives. Two of them were on the Sun City tennis courts where he performed cardiopulmonary resuscitation — CPR.

“I was at the right place at the right time,” Valente said.

It was not just being a medical doctor and having the knowledge that helped him help others. It was a willingness and a readiness to act, he explained.

To help take some of the fear out of responding to an emergency, the public safety committee is conducting a “You Can Save a Life” seminar at 9 a.m. Thursday in Magnolia Hall. The seminar will demonstrate the key points in the life saving process including the 911 call, CPR, when to use the AED (automated external defibrilator) and transferring the victim to paramedics.

“We looked at issues that affect the entire population here,” said David Cullen, chair of the Public Safety Committee. “One of the things that happens in this active adult community and more often than we like to think is people go down in terms of a cardiac event. We just installed 15 AED units, so we originally planned to show the community how to use them and not be intimidated. After talking to the fire and police and emergency personnel, that’s only one element of saving a life.”

Eliminating the fear

The demonstration evolved into a 45-minute seminar on the four aspects of saving a life: Calling 911, the ideal way to perform CPR, use of the AED if required and arrival of the professional rescuers such as the Bluffton Township Fire Dispatch emergency technicians and paramedics, Cullen said.

“We’re bringing in a dispatcher from the fire department so they can explain why they ask the questions they do so they are able to relay that information to the EMTs that are responding,” said Cullen.

The demonstration will include performing CPR and use of the AED on a mannequin and each step will be explained.

“Anyone can do CPR — it’s very simple. Sometimes it sounds complicated but it’s not complicated at all,” said Valente, who often participates in live-saving seminars. “Occasionally I’ll give talks to groups in Sun City and take the difficult out of it. People are afraid they’re not going to do it right, they think they’ll get some contagious disease, and I try to relieve their anxiety.”

AED is just part of the protocol and Valente said operators can’t do it wrong.

“The machine walks you through it. The machine tells you what to do. Lack of knowledge is what creates a lot of fear,” he said. “You have to recognize that there is a problem first, you have to call for help, you have to start breathing for the patient because of every minute the patient goes without oxygen, 10 percent of the brain cells die. It’s not a matter of where you can sit around and think about it.

“If you think about if you are going to respond to an emergency, you’re not going to respond,” Valente said. “It’s a reflex. You don’t think about it. You don’t have time to analyze whether to do it or not.”

Because the demonstration will take place on the floor in front of the stage at an angle difficult for most of the audience to see, Cullen said the program will be televised and simulcast onto the large screen in Magnolia Hall and all of the presenters will be lapel-miked.

“This is not a certification program. It’s just an awareness so that people won’t have that fear factor. You gotta do what you gotta do and the worst thing you can do is nothing,” he said. “As we say at the end of our programs, ‘The life you may save hopes you will come ... to the meeting.’”

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